The Dead Tree Estate
by MagicAlpha
Summary: The Dead Tree Estate, believed to be the most haunted landmark in all of Bunnyburrow, was the last place that Judy and her friends were expecting to venture to on Halloween night. However, that was exactly where they ended up going to.


Gideon Grey pressuring her and her friends into venturing to the most haunted landmark in Bunnyburrow was the _last _thing that the young Judy Hopps expected to happen on Halloween night. However, as fate would have it, that was exactly what happened.

Leading up to that particular moment, it had been just like an other year. Her and her three best friends were enjoying a night of trick-or-treating together, getting their small buckets filled with candy, and admiring some of the spooky props and decor that was placed upon the houses that they stopped at.

Events started to shift for the four close friends shortly after leaving the front doorstep of an elderly rabbit's house. They all managed to score a good bit of candy from that particular house, and the humble leporine handing it out remarked that she adored their costumes. On this particular year, Judy had been dressed in a police officer's hat, Sharla as an astronaut, Gareth as a cowboy, and Bobby Catmull in an elf outfit that looked like something straight out of a fantasy novel, his very own ocarina strapped around his neck.

As they were unhurriedly making their way to next available house, that was when the rest of the night changed. Standing right before them was none other than the bully fox known as Gideon, standing before them in a costume resemblant of a suit of armor with a foam sword prop. Over to his left was Travis, his ferret friend. His face had some sort of light green face-paint upon it, making him look like a goblin.

"Nice outfits, losers," the fox snickered.

The four friends couldn't do anything except roll their eyes at him. There was rarely a time in which he wasn't ridiculing something, whether it be at school or an ordinary occasion. Sharla, being the lover of science that she was, always jokingly said that if he changed his way and went to complimenting others, it might just rip a hole in the space-time continuum.

"What do you want, Gideon?" Judy huffed, not willing to let the vulpine's words put a damper on the fun night.

Gideon then swiped Gareth's trick-or-treat bucket from out of his hooves. "Trick or treat," he laughed.

"Hey, give that back! That's mine!" the beige-wooled sheep cried.

"Yeah, cut it out!" Sharla chimed in.

Completely ignoring their words, the fox and his black-footed ferret friend both chuckled as they looked at all of the candy that the sheep had acquired. The bucket was filled almost to the brim with an assortment consisting of just about any kind of candy a kit could want on a night like this.

"We hit the jackpot," Gideon remarked. Reaching his paw for something he spotted in the container and pulling it out, he added, "Except for that dental floss; we can just toss that. Don't know what doofus hands out dental floss on Halloween. But other than that, Travis, I'd say we hit the mother lode!"

"Yeah," the weasel beside him replied. "I'm callin' dibs on those sour candies. Those are my favorite!"

"Give that back!" Gareth repeated.

That was when Gideon pressured them into the dare that change the rest of that night forever. "Follow me to the Dead Tree Estate and I _just_ might," he told them.

The Dead Tree Estate that he spoke of was a landmark within Bunnyburrow that was presumed to be the very first construction to ever be built on the land. Many backstories had been speculated about the area, but all of them equally said that the place was haunted and was best left unvisited. Of course Gideon would make such a proposition on this particular night.

Judy, Sharla, and Bobby all heard different tales about the old and abandoned estate, and they had been enough for the young ones to steer clear from the forbidden place. However, the best of friends stuck together through thick and thin, and they weren't going to let the fun that only came once a year be ruined for Gareth by the bullying fox.

"Fine," Judy huffed.

With that, the group of mammals all ventured in the direction of Dead Tree Estate, leaving the joyous sights of jack-o'-lanterns and Halloween decor behind.

* * *

"I don't know about this, guys," Gareth said, his voice sounding as nervous as ever. "I'm startin' to get scared!"

Judy and Bobby understood how the young ovine felt at the moment; as much as they tried to hide it at the moment, even _they _feeling a little bit nervous of what they might encounter, too.

Leading the others from up front was none other than Gideon, who was a few paces further from them with Travis tugging not too far away from his side.

"You're more than welcome to tap out," the fox said to the sheep. "You're just gonna have to go home on Halloween night with absolutely no candy."

Upon receiving that reminder, Gareth sagged his head slightly and continued walking alongside his friends.

The path they were all taking to get to this destination lead them through a maze of dark and tall-growing trees, eventually cutting into another unmarked passageway that started to ascend uphill. They could start to see some large building from far away; no details regarding its appearance could be made out from where they were all currently walking.

They walked in silence for a short amount of time, up until they got to the point in which their pathway started to become elevated. The incline started to get slightly steeper as they continued onward, and a series of closed flower blossoms and untrimmed weeds populated the grass on their sides.

After strolling forward in silence for quite some time, Bobby grabbed a hold of the ocarina that had been around his neck the entire time and held it closer to his mouth. Placing his fingers against the holes and blowing into the mouthpiece of the wind instrument, the cougar cub started to play a series of minor notes.

"That music's creepin' me out," Gareth said, interrupting the feline's small song.

"Oh, sorry," Bobby replied. "Didn't mean to do that."

The Dead Tree Estate was now close enough to get a good glimpse at it. To say that the two-floored place was in shabby condition or in need of a repair seemed like an understatement. It would most likely be the first thing to get destroyed if a big enough tornado were to come by and sweep through the area.

A series of dead and leafless trees surrounded the property on both sides of it, giving the forbidden place its name. As they walked forward, they could hear the dark and unforgiving croak of a raven coming from the roof of the abandoned estate. The large black bird flew away into the night, and the group simply stood where they were for the time being.

"Well, here we are!" Gideon announced, chuckling alongside Travis under his breath.

Although a side of him didn't really want to know, Gareth couldn't help but ask his friends behind him,

"What ever happened here for it to get so rundown?"

Judy informed, "I heard that the rabbit who lived here was actually a _warlock_, and that he and a few others that followed him did a lot of black magic and rituals and stuff."

Bobby chimed in, "And _I _heard that there's a ghost of a young deer that still wanders 'round the house from time to time. The story I was told was that she had lost her way one night and stumbled into the house when they were in the middle of a ritual. That beaver kid in class said his cousin went in there one time to see if it was all a lie or not. He didn't _see _the ghost, but he said that he could hear screaming coming from under the floorboards-"

"Okay," Gareth interrupted, "I've heard enough."

"Yeah, those stories are startin' to give me the heebie-jeebies," Sharla said, shivering slightly. Even though she held a strong belief in science and not myth, the black-wooled ovine still found the folklore surrounding the estate to be quite unsettling.

"Those ain't just some made-up stories," Gideon snapped. "And we're gonna discover that for ourselves right now."

If he were to be honest, though, the fox didn't believe any of the estate's tales one bit. He had always thought of it as nothing but superstitious hogwash, but he pretended to have belief in it just to make sure that they were scared.

He started to walk his way over to the front door, which was hanging wide open. When he realized that the others weren't following him, Gideon said, "What are y'all waitin' on?"

"Yeah," Travis added, "what are you, chicken?"

Just as Judy was about to respond to his rhetoric, the ferret put his arms to his sides and started to flap them, imitating the sound of a clucking chicken.

The rabbit just remained silent, and her and her friends hesitantly started to step forward, slowly making their way over to the entrance to the large estate. Once all of them stepped into the Dead Tree Estate's main living room, they were greeted with the sound of the rickety, weathered floorboards creaking below them echoing against the walls.

As they took some of their first steps inside, a large painting that remained crooked caught their attention. The illustration depicted a middle-aged buck with a coat of auburn fur, dressed in a tailored suit and holding a walking stick.

Sharla pointed a hoof towards the picture out of curiosity. "Who is that?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," Judy replied, "but I'm guessin' that's the buck who did all of the magic in the stories."

"Wakey-wakey, ghosts!" Gideon shouted jokingly. "We're walkin' around in the open, ya better come out 'ere and get us!"

Bobby got behind Judy as she lead them slowly through the deserted living space, and Gareth remained behind Sharla's back.

Travis snickered upon turning his head around. "Look, Gideon," he said, nudging the fox's shoulder to get him to look around as well. "Looks like Bobby's turnin' into a scaredy-cat."

The cougar casted a glare in the direction of the two currently making fun of him. "I am _not_," he said out of utter denial, his voice easily implying that he actually _was _getting scared. "I'm just… protecting Judy from behind if anything gets us."

"Give him a break, Gideon," Judy said, sticking up for her cougar friend.

"Okay, sure," the fox huffed in reply. "Well if he ain't such a scaredy-cat, then he'd be brave enough to lead us to the next room. But you know what? He won't, 'cause _he's_ too chicken to do somethin' like that."

The ferret beside Gideon bent his elbows again and proceeded to do his imitation of the clucking chicken again. However, the vulpine in front of him held a paw out in front of him, gesturing for him to stay quiet.

"They get the point, Travis," Gideon said to him.

Not wanting to be joked about anymore, Bobby took a deep breath out and slowly walked forward. "Fine," he muttered.

Catmull did his best to keep a calm and collected expression on his muzzle, but inside he felt the trepidation start to build up inside of him. Judy and the two ovines beside her stayed close as they followed the cougar's footsteps. Gideon and Travis remained not too far away from him as they all strolled along.

The next area in the house they walked towards lead to two other spacious rooms, a large wooden cabinet positioned in the middle of the hall. Sitting upon the shelves of it was a series of glass jars with labels made out of aged, scribbled-on pieces of paper. All of them were completely empty after being unattended for as long as they had been.

"What are those?" Sharla asked, her curiosity piqued by what they were observing.

"Rosemary, tarragon, majoram…" Judy said as she read off of the labels on the jars. "There's, like, five on this shelf that are all supposed be sage—that's what the jars say on them, at least."

"Whoever lived here obviously liked to cook, too," Bobby said.

The young doe replied, "I don't believe that's what these were bein' used for, Bobby. I read in one of my mom's books on plants that sage was used years and years ago to keep unwanted spirits away. My guess is that they used these if they ended up summoning something they didn't want to whenever they did a ritual."

Floorboards continued to make a groaning noise as they surveyed the area, sounding as if they were going to cave in from underneath their paws and hooves at any given moment. When they turned around made way for the room to the right of them, they didn't see Gideon or Travis in their field of vision.

A few seconds later, they heard Gideon hollering in the distance. Following the direction that his voice was coming from, they trekked through the next room that had several pieces of once-lavish furniture overturned and in disarray. In the far left corner, the four could see Gideon standing on the top of a small step that lead to what looked like a bedroom of some sort.

The fox and his ferret pal kicked the weathered door in front of them open.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Gideon asked out of mockery as he slowly stepped inside the room he was near. He let out a snicker under his breath. "So much for there bein' ghosts and what not lurkin' 'round the-"

Before he could even finish what he was about to say, the vulpine found himself hitting the ground with a thud and being pulled backwards by some invisible force. He let out a terrified shout that got fainted as he was drug further out of view. As Travis tried to run out fo the room for safety, he also found himself having the same thing happen to him, too.

Gareth's bucket of candy was pushed through the doorway and down the step by something that could not be seen. Shortly afterwards, the egress slammed shut. To add to the sudden and uncanny circumstances, the lock on the nearby door moved on its own without anybody touching it.

The suddenness of this caused Judy and her friends to stop dead in their tracks.

"Leave!" a unknown female voice cried in a hoarse tone.

The four turned their bodies around and jumped upon seeing the ghostly figure of a deer in a long dress that had dried stains of blood on the bottom of it.

Hesitantly, Bobby stuttered, "That's the g-ghost that the b-beaver told me-"

"Leave this place while you still can!" the fawn spirit exclaimed again. "I sense his presence! The one who took my life still lingers here!"

The moment they all blinked their eyes, the specter mysteriously vanished, and her shouting voice dissipated from their hearing.

Looking at one another, the four said in sync with one another, "Run."

Gareth ran over to the corner where his candy bucket laid tipped over on its side, quickly picking the few packages that spilled onto the floor before darting off with the rest of his friends.

Going as fast as their legs could carry them, they ran back the way they came in and out the front door. The four scattered in various directions as they descended the hill they had previously walked up, but joined back up with one another upon reaching the forest path.

The Dead Tree Estate started to get smaller and smaller in the distance as they carefully but quickly got back to where all of the trick-or-treating was happening.

* * *

Gideon was never the type of mammal to get easily scared by things. He had seen several different horror movies in his time, and none of those had ever given any type of fright whatsoever. However, it was during this situation he found himself in that he could truly say that he was serious scared for the first time.

What he was currently experiencing was the most pulse-pounding part of a scary story coming to life, and, in this scenario, the fox was the character that was about to bear witness to whatever it was that drug him into and locked him inside.

The expression of toughness that normally resided against his muzzle was now gone, replaced with a look of utter trepidation. If there was anything he remembered from those movies he had seen, it was that this was around the time that the monster jumped out from the darkness.

The fox ran over towards the other side of the room, running passed the aged bed frame that had no mattress on it. He hid around the corner, nearly knocking over the standing mirror located over there in the process.

Turning his head over to the right, he saw that Travis was basically doing the same thing he was. In a corner on the opposite side, he stood there in a huddled position, his body shaking. The mustelid held out a jittery paw, pointing to something in the distance.

Gideon turned his head to see what his friend was pointing at in fear. Right before he was about to mutter that nothing was there, he heard a thwacking sound that made him jump. The fox drew out the fake sword prop that was part of his Halloween costume, as if that cheap piece of foam was going to be beneficial to him in some way.

"Who's there?" he stuttered. "D-Don't hurt m-me."

His darted down to the floor below him for just a quick moment. Upon brining his attention back to what surrounded him, he saw a phantasmal figure that sent a shiver down his spine and made his fur stand up on end. The apparition that appeared before him was an auburn-furred rabbit, his eyes casting a haunting white glow.

_Dear gods, _the fox thought, _that's the rabbit in that painting._

"_Very interesting,_" the buck croaked, his voice sounding like several different voices were saying the same thing at the same time. The rabbit phantom glared over at the ferret to the right of him, who looked like he was on the verge of tearing up, and then back over at the vulpine. "_You and your friend will join me in the fiery abode._"

It was right then and there that Gideon and Travis both broke out into screams. And within the sounds of those screams was the faint sound of a raven's unforgiving croak, coming from the spot that consisted of the dead trees that gave the place its name.

* * *

**_Later..._**

_What a night, _Judy thought. _What. A. Night._

After the unforgettable experience that she had just been through, it felt relieving to her to finally be back at home where everything was safe.

As she stepped through the front door and into the living room, she put on the most relaxed expression she could conjure to avoid drawing any suspicion. Her father was slouched on the couch in the middle of the room, slowly falling asleep as the football game on the television continued to play. At the sound of the referee's whistle, his eyelids opened up to see her standing there in front of him.

"Jude the Dude," he greeted, grabbing the remote beside him and turning the volume down a little bit.

"Hi, Dad," Judy replied.

The young bunny walked out of the room and over to the kitchen. Her mother was right around the corner, scrubbing some of the dishes that were still in the sink.

"Hey, Honey," she greeted with her welcoming tone of voice. "Back already?"

Judy nodded her head, walking over to the dining room area and setting her basket of Halloween candy on the table.

"You have fun with your friends?" her mother asked with a smile.

The young doe replied, "Yep, sure did." She ran back over to the front door where the coat hanger was located and hung up the police officer hat that was part of her costume. On the way back, she remarked, "Headin' to bed now."

"But it's Halloween night, sweetie. Don't you want to stay up for just a few more minutes?"

"Actually, Mom, I think I'm good."

Lucky for her, her mother didn't start to get suspicious regarding why she was in such a hurry to just head off to her room and go to sleep. "Alright, honey," she said, giving her a hug. "Goodnight, Judy."

"Goodnight."

And with that, Judy ran up the stairs and over to her bedroom to try and get some rest after having the most eventful Halloween night ever.

If she didn't have any dreams consisting of that estate when she drifted off to sleep, it would have been a miracle.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey there, everyone! With Halloween creeping around the corner, I most recently had the urge to write something that had a bit of a spooky element to it.**

**I started thinking of how I could possibly write a Halloween story that involved Judy and her friends in Bunnyburrow back when they were all young. And that's when this story started to take form. I had fun typing it out, and hope that you enjoyed reading it! :)**

**On another note, I decided to leave whether Gideon or Travis managed to escape from the estate unharmed or not up to the reader's imagination.**

**As always, feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated.**

**'Til next time! :)**


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